diff --git a/woodwind/tasks.py b/woodwind/tasks.py
index 24b71ea..84b13a2 100644
--- a/woodwind/tasks.py
+++ b/woodwind/tasks.py
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@ def update_feed(feed_id, content=None,
                                         len(content))
             else:
                 current_app.logger.info('fetching feed: %s', feed)
-                response = requests.get(feed.feed)
+                response = util.requests_get(feed.feed)
                 if response.status_code // 100 != 2:
                     current_app.logger.warn('bad response from %s. %r: %r',
                                             feed.feed, response, response.text)
@@ -443,7 +443,10 @@ def hentry_to_entry(hentry, feed, backfill, now):
 def fetch_reply_context(entry_id, in_reply_to, now):
     with flask_app():
         entry = Entry.query.get(entry_id)
-        context = Entry.query.filter_by(permalink=in_reply_to).first()
+        context = Entry.query\
+                       .join(Entry.feed)\
+                       .filter(Entry.permalink==in_reply_to, Feed.type == 'html')\
+                       .first()
 
         if not context:
             current_app.logger.info('fetching in-reply-to url: %s',
diff --git a/woodwind/util.py b/woodwind/util.py
index 7caa821..96e9674 100644
--- a/woodwind/util.py
+++ b/woodwind/util.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import bleach
 import re
+import requests
 
 bleach.ALLOWED_TAGS += [
     'a', 'img', 'p', 'br', 'marquee', 'blink',
@@ -14,7 +15,14 @@ bleach.ALLOWED_ATTRIBUTES.update({
     'td': ['colspan'],
 })
 
+USER_AGENT = 'Woodwind (https://github.com/kylewm/woodwind)'
 
+
+def requests_get(url, **kwargs):
+    kwargs.setdefault('headers', {})['User-Agent'] = USER_AGENT
+    return requests.get(url, **kwargs)
+
+    
 def clean(text):
     """Strip script tags and other possibly dangerous content
     """
diff --git a/woodwind/views.py b/woodwind/views.py
index eded0f8..78842a5 100644
--- a/woodwind/views.py
+++ b/woodwind/views.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-from . import tasks
+from . import tasks, util
 from .extensions import db, login_mgr, micropub
 from .models import Feed, Entry, User, Subscription
 import flask.ext.login as flask_login
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ def index():
         flask.render_template('feed.jinja2', entries=entries, page=page,
                               ws_topic=ws_topic, solo=solo,
                               all_tags=all_tags))
-    resp.headers['Cache-control'] = 'no-cache'
+    resp.headers['Cache-control'] = 'max-age=0'
     return resp
 
 
@@ -297,7 +297,7 @@ def update_micropub_syndicate_to():
     token = flask_login.current_user.access_token
     if not endpt or not token:
         return
-    resp = requests.get(endpt, params={
+    resp = util.requests_get(endpt, params={
         'q': 'syndicate-to',
     }, headers={
         'Authorization': 'Bearer ' + token,
@@ -367,12 +367,14 @@ def add_subscription(origin, feed_url, type, tags=None):
         name = None
         if type == 'html':
             flask.current_app.logger.debug('mf2py parsing %s', feed_url)
+            resp = util.requests_get(feed_url)
+            feed_text = resp.text if 'charset' in resp.headers.get('content-type', '') else resp.content
             parsed = mf2util.interpret_feed(
-                mf2py.Parser(url=feed_url).to_dict(), feed_url)
+                mf2py.parse(doc=feed_text, url=feed_url), feed_url)
             name = parsed.get('name')
         elif type == 'xml':
             flask.current_app.logger.debug('feedparser parsing %s', feed_url)
-            parsed = feedparser.parse(feed_url)
+            parsed = feedparser.parse(feed_url, agent=util.USER_AGENT)
             if parsed.feed:
                 name = parsed.feed.get('title')
         else:
@@ -399,7 +401,7 @@ def add_subscription(origin, feed_url, type, tags=None):
 def find_possible_feeds(origin):
     # scrape an origin source to find possible alternative feeds
     try:
-        resp = requests.get(origin)
+        resp = util.requests_get(origin)
     except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:
         flask.flash('Error fetching source {}'.format(repr(e)))
         flask.current_app.logger.warn(